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Panto Review: Sleeping Beauty (Salisbury Playhouse)

Review by Seth Wilby

 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

 

‘Tis the season once again, where all over the country boos are hollered, gunge is thrown, and fourth walls are completely decimated. And it’s no different at the Salisbury Playhouse, where audiences are venturing into the town of Salisburyshire for all the traditional festive fun and laughter in Sleeping Beauty.

 


Written by Plested, Brown and Wilsher, this Sleeping Beauty sets the traditional tale in the fashion capital of Salisburyshire, where Princess Stella, daughter of King Arthur Rightus (I’m not ashamed to say that his name was my first of many laughs of the night), is cursed by the evil Fairy Badflix, and must go live in the countryside with Nanny Fanny Adams. The story is typically pantomime and the writing provides lots of fun, although I was surprised to find myself quite so invested in the plot during the first act. There were some choices later on that felt lazy, but, admittedly, expecting nuanced subtext from the plot of a pantomime is like expecting Mariah Carey to want a lot for Christmas. 

 

All of the scenes you’d expect appear, sticking to what works as we watch all the classic scenes unfold, from the ‘it’s behind you’ ghost gag to the audience singalong near the end. There was even a whole song centred around magic (Take That’s ‘Could it be Magic?’ unsurprisingly), although a lot of this seemed too simple to be truly impressive, with a repeated handkerchief gag being the one part of the show where you could feel the audience’s attention drifting. Over the two and a half hours, the high level of fun is maintained nearly constantly, with the writing delivering the eclectic range of choices (everything from dancing televisions to a Bake Off spoof) that you’d only ever get from a panto.



There are the typical modern touches and nods to pop culture, but many of these felt dated, with the chosen references to films, music and politics making you think you were back in 2016! Pop songs are parodied to a suitable degree - Coldplay’s ‘A Sky Full of Stars’ becomes a recurring motif, and I shouldn’t need to explain the motive behind choosing Avicii’s ‘Wake Me Up.’ There were even a handful of songs to appeal to the musical theatre fans with Natasha O’Brien’s Fairy Badflix giving a jazzy take on ‘Telly’ from Matilda, and Claudia Kariuki’s rendition of ‘Gotta Start Somewhere’ from Back to the Future feeling like something straight out of a Roles We’ll Never Play concert. Ryan McBryde’s direction paced these well, with quick succession from song to scene and back, and there’s no denying that this show provides all the theatre magic you want from a panto (the act one finale sees the whole theatre, foyer and all, filled with bubbles, for example), striking the perfect balance between toilet humour and the more adult innuendo (each pulled off just right as to brush over the heads of children, even when excitedly shouting ‘nice to see ya, Fanny!’).

 

This production’s honorary fairy wings are granted by its cast, who all give their performance’s such infectious energy and generate genuine connections with the audience. Neal Craig brings a nobly sensitive touch to King Arthur, developing the show’s emotional core, and also puppeteering a chicken which, in my opinion, deserved far more stage time. Scotty Armstrong demonstrates a very quick wit in the esteemed role of Pantomime Dame, Nanny Fanny Adams, channeling an oddball combination of Mary Poppins and Mrs Doubtfire as he fills Nanny’s many intricate costumes with his larger-than-life performance. Ensemble member Bella Donald also deserves a mention for her almost scene-stealing performance as the royal trumpeter. Joseph Peacock is hilariously energetic as Stella’s friend, Mike the Magnificent, quite literally flinging himself into everything he does with passion and charm, and showing a great chemistry with Stella, played by Lottie Mae O’Kill. O’Kill’s performance is wonderful, with a sense of both innocence and courage making for a great heroine as well as a truly terrific singing voice- her rendition of ‘Fight Song’ was superb in proving her worthy of big things, and she even delivered THAT ‘Defying Gravity’ riff seamlessly.

 


The stand out performance for me, however, must go to Natasha O’Brien for a magnificently evil turn as Fairy Badflix, whose obsession with television was anything but subtle in its anti-screen time messaging. O’Brien is demonically evil and brilliantly funny from the very beginning, when she describes her friends, Peppa, George and Rebecca Rabbit. She achieves cartoon villain to such a necessary extravagance that it becomes fun to boo her, and all of that’s without mentioning her evil cackle, which she delivers in the form of a brilliantly powerful belt. Badflix’s sister, Fairy Frappuccino, is played by Claudia Kariuki in a sassy, bouncy, caffeine-induced performance complete with many coffee-based puns. The duet between Kariuki and O'Brien is a particularly strong moment as they each demonstrate their impressive vocal prowess.

 

The set and costume for this production, designed by Katie Lias and all made in the Playhouse’s very own workshop, bring this world to life with colour and imagination. Lias has pulled off some impressively exaggerated costumes, particularly for Armstrong’s Dame, but also with a massive Coffee cup for Fairy Frappuccino and very smooth quick changes. I found the details wonderfully smart in mimicking the haberdashery roots of Salisburyshire, with the ensemble’s woodland animal costumes consisting of multi-purposed uses of oversized buttons and sewing needles. Giving the show extra energy is the live music, credited to musical director Ong Cheng Kan and musical supervisor Paul Herbert. The whole show’s design feels more local than the typical commercial pantomime, and the production’s soul feels clearer and more heartfelt as a result of this.

 


Ultimately, Salisbury’s festive offering is a fun pantomime, delivering exactly what you’d expect in an all-singing, all-dancing package with a focused story and wonderful cast. While leaving, a kid was wailing ‘I don’t want to leave’ and I think that’s the best review it could get. This is certainly not a pantomime audiences should sleep on.

 

Sleeping Beauty plays at Salisbury Playhouse until until January 12th 2025

 

 

Photos by Pamela Raith

 

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